Designing Women

September 17, 1990

Sugarbaker's is beset by tourists when the building's Civil War foundation puts it on the Tour of Historical Homes, Mary Jo opens her heart to an old friend eager to make good on a marriage pact they once entered into.

September 24, 1990

Charlene aims to make Anthony's 30th birthday a memorable one -- by hiring a private detective to find his long-lost father.

October 1, 1990

Resentment builds between Charlene and Mary Jo when Charlene wants to take a year off to look after her baby. The decorators cater to the whims of a rich, insufferable 10-year-old client as Mary Jo and Charlene ponder the joys and pitfalls of working mothers.

October 15, 1990

Julia's dinner plans with former President Jimmy Carter and his wife are put on hold when her slow-moving jury gets sequestered.

October 22, 1990

When organizational confusion leads to Suzanne winning a date with Anthony in a bachelor charity auction, the two reluctantly try to make the best of a very awkward situation.

October 29, 1990

As the proud new owner of a grand but ghostly mansion, Charlene hires the decorators to give the place a facelift -- not mentioning that it's haunted.

November 5, 1990

Charlene's baby, Olivia, auditions for a modeling job, Mary Jo finds one of her former teachers in a nursing home.

November 12, 1990

Mary Jo takes up jogging, and inadvertently helps turn Julia into a fitness zealot.

November 19, 1990

Anthony buys in to become a full partner; new student Charlene fends off an amorous psychology professor.

November 26, 1990

With her husband away on a mission, Charlene guiltily draws close to a man in her support group for military spouses who wife is also away. Meanwhile, lottery fever sweeps Sugarbakers.

December 10, 1990

Mary Jo forbids her nearly 18-year-old daughter to date a 34-year-old, then dates him herself, Julia is forced to crash the men's room at a football stadium.

December 17, 1990

After Bernice gets a local public-access cable TV show, Mary Jo has her heart broken by a client and decides that Bernice's show is the ideal arena to air her views on men.

January 7, 1991

Mary Jo borrows and loses a string of pearls flaunted by Suzanne, subbing as a lifestyles reporter for local TV news. Meanwhile, a recurring dream about Julia upsets Anthony.

January 14, 1991

Anthony, concerned with his masculinity after working with the women so long, tries standing up to his bullying neighbor, and is further humiliated when the women come to his rescue.

January 28, 1991

Everyone at Sugarbakers is baffled to discover that sensible Julia has covertly been singing evenings at a nightclub, Anthony tries to muster the nerve to ask out a girl who works at the bookstore.

February 4, 1991

Bernice gets an extraordinarily bad eye tuck and rhinoplasty from a plastic surgeon whose work leaves something to be desired.

February 11, 1991

Mary Jo, wanting a baby, turns to her friend and former beau; Suzanne takes up smoking as a way to diet.

February 25, 1991

Amateur painter Julia inadvertently becomes the darling of Atlanta's art scene when someone tries to buy her handbag while she's attending a gallery opening; Suzanne inadvertently glues her lips shut.

March 4, 1991

When the gang attends a convention in intoxicating New Orleans, Mary Jo unwittingly sleeps with a married man.

March 18, 1991

Mary Jo runs across the man who mugged her the year before, but faces horrendous judicial red tape to bring him to trial.

April 8, 1991

Julia tries coping with her boyfriend Reese's death by looking after Randa Oliver, the supremely spoiled child of a client couple on an extended vacation.

April 29, 1991

Charlene, readjusting to married life upon Bill's return from the Middle East, quits her and Mary Jo's children's-book project.

May 6, 1991

Suzanne is jealous when Anthony is invited to be the first black (i.e., token) in the previously all-white Beaumont Country Club.

May 13, 1991

Mary Jo and Julia demonstrate different coaching styles when their firm sponsors a Little League team.